North Springs High School students protest the police killings of African Americans. (Courtesy of Jeffrey Taylor)

With shouts of “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” students staged a sit-in at North Springs High School in Sandy Springs, Georgia, yesterday. That same day, a similar protest was reportedly held at Gwinnett High School, with another at Archer High School the day before. School officials at North Springs High said that a planned “peaceful” protest turned into a sit-in when a “rumor” spread that an administrator had called the group Black Lives Matter “a terrorist group”.

Monique Taylor says that her 16 year old son Jeffrey, a student at North Springs High, had told her on the drive to school that a Black Out was planned that day. He said they’d be wearing black t-shirts. “I thought it was nice”, said Taylor, “because we don’t really give kids the credit to think that they know what’s going on and happening in our world”.

A video of the North Springs High protest, that was posted on the V103 Facebook page, at this writing, has been viewed by thousands.

Atlanta NAACP Rally Sept 23, 2016(Courtesy of Jana Johnson-Davis)

Atlanta NAACP Rally Sept 23, 2016(Courtesy of Jana Johnson-Davis)

Atlanta NAACP Rally Sept 23, 2016(Courtesy of Jana Johnson-Davis)

Atlanta NAACP Rally Sept 23, 2016(Courtesy of Jana Johnson-Davis)

Atlanta NAACP Rally Sept 23, 2016(Courtesy of Jana Johnson-Davis)

Atlanta NAACP Rally Sept 23, 2016(Courtesy of Jana Johnson-Davis)

A march organized by the Georgia NAACP started at the Center for Civil and Human Rights and ended at the City Detention Center. It was there that organizers demanded that officers be held accountable for police shootings, after the killings of black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Acccording to Atlanta activist and organizer Mawuli Davis, “this gathering was an escalation because it is ‘midnight in America’ and our demand for justice will be heard by our willingness to engage in direct confrontation.” Davis goes on to say, “To not just march, but to confront and occupy the institutions that are the basis for police brutality and mass incarceration.”

Maria Boynton

Maria Boynton
was named anchor of CBS Radio Atlanta V-103’s morning news broadcasts in July of 2014.
She joined WVEE following 20 years of covering presidential campaigns, and the Georgia General Assembly for several years. Her experience...